Dominican Republic Citizenship Crisis

In September 2013, a Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic (DR) issued a ruling that effectively rendered stateless anyone with foreign ancestry born in 1929 or later. After receiving backlash from the international community, the DR government instituted a Regularization Plan to register these people and issue them identification cards. Thousands, however, were unable to meet the deadline due to fees and requirements to present documents that in many cases do not exist, such as ID cards that were confiscated by authorities.

After the deadline passed, the DR government began deporting migrants who did not register in time. Unfortunately, the criteria for determining who is a migrant are unclear and likely resulted in the deportation of Dominicans of Haitian descent as well. These Dominicans are often categorized as Haitian because of their last names or their skin color, though many have never been to Haiti and don’t speak the language. Many thousands of Dominicans and Haitians also fled from DR to Haiti due to threats of deportation, violence and other fear-inducing acts from Dominican officials and neighbors.